As smartphones become more accessible to the public, any online marketer will make a disservice to themselves if they do not focus on mobile shopping cart conversions. To stay ahead of the curve and to improve profits, websites need more than just a web design that is fluid and able to accommodate the framework of a tablet or smartphone. All stages of the sales funnel need to be optimized, especially for mobile shoppers who tend to be a bit more skittish when compared to desktop users. Here are 9 pitfalls that may undermine your mobile shopping optimization efforts.
1. Your Checkout Process Is Long, Tedious, and Cumbersome
People do not like to fill along forms when shopping, especially not on a small screen like the ones on personal cell phones. If your potential customer has to jump through several hoops just to put an item into the shopping cart, then it's going to show negatively on your engagement metrics. One-click checkouts for return customers and making sure that new customers go through a streamlined interface when purchasing their first items is one of the best things to encourage completion of the buying process. Relatively small aspects of your shopping cart can reinforce positive shopping behavior. Suggesting an address while a customer is filling in shipping information, or using a payment processor that is easy to use like Amazon or Paypal will jumpstart conversions.
2. You Don't Allow Your Customers to Change Devices
Many people like to browse on their smartphones and actually complete the buying process on their computer. If you do not have the proper interface to take care of this interim, then you will be missing a large chunk of potential customers. Inserting a "Do You Want to Email Your Shopping Cart?" Button on your website will send a copy of the shopping cart to their email address. Not only is this a viable way to help encourage sales, but you may have just won a new subscriber to your hyper-relevant newsletter.
3. You're Hiding Critical Content Below the Fold or On The Next Page
Mobile users want an intuitive design. Do this by keeping the most relevant and important information above the fold and on the same page. Shoppers on slower cellular connections can experience much longer load times compared to high-speed Internet users. Making shoppers swipe multiple screens or wait for unnecessary page loads will kill your cart conversion rate.
4. You're Not Retargeting "Cross Channel"
Understand that mobile users are skittish – the novelty of buying products right from a smartphone is still an aspect that makes certain demographics uncomfortable. Use cross-channel tracking to help convert weary buyers in the future. If appropriate, an email, a phone call, or a tweet reminding them of their shopping cart can help jumpstart your conversions. Note that it is important to conceptualize the fact that the shopping cart is more than just a single web page, it is a page where customers will divulge in impulse purchases. A competent marketer will help encourage them down the sales funnel.
5. You're Confusing Your Buyer With Too Many Links
Links to other web pages or other parts of your website should be distinctly away from buy buttons and allow for larger fingers. Involuntary clicks on to other parts of your website will frustrate your shoppers and kill your conversions.
6. You Aren't Using Mobile Optimized Call To Action Buttons
You may find that direct phone calls perform better for your mobile shoppers. Unsure that your click to call functionality is working and that you have large buttons for your visitors to press to get in contact with you. This is also a highly effective way of converting mobile traffic to phone leads.
7. You're Overdoing the Pop-ups
Pop-up banners and advertising that gets in the way of the buying process will only kill conversions. Pop-up banners, especially, is one of the larger conversion killers for mobile users. Pop-up banners are large, intrusive, and take up a lot of phone real estate. This distraction when only dramatically increase drop off rates. Once shoppers enter your shopping cart funnel, remove all unnecessary distractions so that you are prioritizing your conversion.
8. You're Simply Rearranging Your Desktop Content
Screen size makes a huge difference when it comes to the content that site visitors will read. If you're simply rearranging the large screen content onto smaller screens, then shoppers may be missing important information. While responsive designs are great, that doesn't mean that you should render everything from your desktop site. While large images or media is loading, your shoppers are forced to either wait or have content move on them after they've started to scroll on a page. You can circumvent this by being strategic about what content shows on each of your screen sizes. Ensure that your higher conversion drivers (e.g. product descriptions, pricing, shipping costs) are not being "hung up" by non-critical items.
9. You Forget To Test
You know that cart optimization is an ongoing process, but you still forget to test. While responsive site designs have improved the shopping experience on mobile devices, be sure that you don't forget to routinely audit your shopping cart funnel across multiple devices. Pull up your analytics report to see what devices your shoppers are using, and then use an emulator if you don't have the device handy.
Now take a breath... understand that certain constraints are out of your control.
No matter how well you design your website, there are certain screen sizes that simply aren't optimal for shoppers. Many services focus on the screens on iPhones and popular Android devices, and usually they mesh well with other screen sizes. However, certain cell phones may have ineffective screen sizes that make it harder for the users to see supplemental information or filtering tools. Cell network speeds and congested towers can also hamper the experience of your online shopper. While shoppers on their computers may have high-speed Internet connections, don't forget that other shoppers are forced to use cellular networks to navigate through the buying process. Unless you're in the middle of a full redesign, the goal is to focus on the next largest conversion rate killer, and leave the rest for another time.
We'd love to hear from you. Did we miss a major Killer that you've experienced? Let us know in the comments or through some other way.
The User Guided Group can help you design, build and/or validate products and services. With the technical resources to develop your product roadmap, the marketing expertise to help you reach your customers, and the data-driven insights to let you know what's working, we can help your product succeed from the first step to the last.
1. Your Checkout Process Is Long, Tedious, and Cumbersome
People do not like to fill along forms when shopping, especially not on a small screen like the ones on personal cell phones. If your potential customer has to jump through several hoops just to put an item into the shopping cart, then it's going to show negatively on your engagement metrics. One-click checkouts for return customers and making sure that new customers go through a streamlined interface when purchasing their first items is one of the best things to encourage completion of the buying process. Relatively small aspects of your shopping cart can reinforce positive shopping behavior. Suggesting an address while a customer is filling in shipping information, or using a payment processor that is easy to use like Amazon or Paypal will jumpstart conversions.
2. You Don't Allow Your Customers to Change Devices
Many people like to browse on their smartphones and actually complete the buying process on their computer. If you do not have the proper interface to take care of this interim, then you will be missing a large chunk of potential customers. Inserting a "Do You Want to Email Your Shopping Cart?" Button on your website will send a copy of the shopping cart to their email address. Not only is this a viable way to help encourage sales, but you may have just won a new subscriber to your hyper-relevant newsletter.
3. You're Hiding Critical Content Below the Fold or On The Next Page
Mobile users want an intuitive design. Do this by keeping the most relevant and important information above the fold and on the same page. Shoppers on slower cellular connections can experience much longer load times compared to high-speed Internet users. Making shoppers swipe multiple screens or wait for unnecessary page loads will kill your cart conversion rate.
4. You're Not Retargeting "Cross Channel"
Understand that mobile users are skittish – the novelty of buying products right from a smartphone is still an aspect that makes certain demographics uncomfortable. Use cross-channel tracking to help convert weary buyers in the future. If appropriate, an email, a phone call, or a tweet reminding them of their shopping cart can help jumpstart your conversions. Note that it is important to conceptualize the fact that the shopping cart is more than just a single web page, it is a page where customers will divulge in impulse purchases. A competent marketer will help encourage them down the sales funnel.
5. You're Confusing Your Buyer With Too Many Links
Links to other web pages or other parts of your website should be distinctly away from buy buttons and allow for larger fingers. Involuntary clicks on to other parts of your website will frustrate your shoppers and kill your conversions.
6. You Aren't Using Mobile Optimized Call To Action Buttons
You may find that direct phone calls perform better for your mobile shoppers. Unsure that your click to call functionality is working and that you have large buttons for your visitors to press to get in contact with you. This is also a highly effective way of converting mobile traffic to phone leads.
7. You're Overdoing the Pop-ups
Pop-up banners and advertising that gets in the way of the buying process will only kill conversions. Pop-up banners, especially, is one of the larger conversion killers for mobile users. Pop-up banners are large, intrusive, and take up a lot of phone real estate. This distraction when only dramatically increase drop off rates. Once shoppers enter your shopping cart funnel, remove all unnecessary distractions so that you are prioritizing your conversion.
8. You're Simply Rearranging Your Desktop Content
Screen size makes a huge difference when it comes to the content that site visitors will read. If you're simply rearranging the large screen content onto smaller screens, then shoppers may be missing important information. While responsive designs are great, that doesn't mean that you should render everything from your desktop site. While large images or media is loading, your shoppers are forced to either wait or have content move on them after they've started to scroll on a page. You can circumvent this by being strategic about what content shows on each of your screen sizes. Ensure that your higher conversion drivers (e.g. product descriptions, pricing, shipping costs) are not being "hung up" by non-critical items.
9. You Forget To Test
You know that cart optimization is an ongoing process, but you still forget to test. While responsive site designs have improved the shopping experience on mobile devices, be sure that you don't forget to routinely audit your shopping cart funnel across multiple devices. Pull up your analytics report to see what devices your shoppers are using, and then use an emulator if you don't have the device handy.
Now take a breath... understand that certain constraints are out of your control.
No matter how well you design your website, there are certain screen sizes that simply aren't optimal for shoppers. Many services focus on the screens on iPhones and popular Android devices, and usually they mesh well with other screen sizes. However, certain cell phones may have ineffective screen sizes that make it harder for the users to see supplemental information or filtering tools. Cell network speeds and congested towers can also hamper the experience of your online shopper. While shoppers on their computers may have high-speed Internet connections, don't forget that other shoppers are forced to use cellular networks to navigate through the buying process. Unless you're in the middle of a full redesign, the goal is to focus on the next largest conversion rate killer, and leave the rest for another time.
We'd love to hear from you. Did we miss a major Killer that you've experienced? Let us know in the comments or through some other way.
The User Guided Group can help you design, build and/or validate products and services. With the technical resources to develop your product roadmap, the marketing expertise to help you reach your customers, and the data-driven insights to let you know what's working, we can help your product succeed from the first step to the last.
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